How stress can affect your immune system

Fusion Health Immunity and Stress is formulated with Ashwagandha and Astragalus with supporting nutrients, working together to help the body adapt to stress, and helps enhance immune system function to promote better quality of life.

Key Takeaways

• Why do you often get sick when going through chronic stress?
• The relationship between the nervous system and immune system; what is the neuroimmune axis? /li>
• How can Fusion Immunity and Stress help?

Overview of the Stress-Immune Axis

Simplified: The stress-immune axis, also referred to as the neuroimmune axis, explores how the nervous system, especially in stressful situations, can impact immunity, potentially leading to immunosuppression. It represents the connection between the nervous and immune systems, highlighting that both acute and chronic stress can weaken the immune response, making you more susceptible to illness5.

What is Burnout?

The effects of living in a rapidly changing world can make it challenging to adjust to constant change. This persistence can lead to chronic stress and elevate the risk of experiencing burnout and prolonged fatigue.

Burnout is the state of physical, emotional, and/or mental exhaustion from prolonged stress, forcing your body to slow down and rest. It is often caused by work, exercise, or family related stress. When burnout occurs, it is often presented with illness (such as a cold), as a sign to communicate to the body “we need to rest!” via the neuroimmune axis.  When there is no rest or full recovery before getting back to work, your body will continue to cycle between chronic stress, immunosuppression and fighting off an illness due to burning out1.

Signs and symptoms of burning out:

• Headaches
• Exhaustion / fatigue
• Frequent illness / slow recovery
• Changes in sleeping patterns /restlessness.
• Changes in appetite
• Loss of motivation / procrastination
• Withdrawal / isolation
• Mood imbalances / irritability

Before we get into the effects on immunity, there are 2 main forms of stress that can influence the immune system: physicochemical stress and psychological stress. It is important to understand the different types of stress and their most common causes, because not everyone feels stress, and don’t realise that not all stress is psychological. So, what is physicochemical stress?

Physicochemical stress

Is a form of stress caused from environmental factors such as:

• food habits (frequent fast food, over or under eating, malnutrition etc)
• dehydration
• exposure to toxins/pollution
• inflammatory health conditions
• pain
• metabolic health conditions
• and infections

When the immune system is compromised, or is not functioning properly, the body struggles to cope with physicochemical and psychological stressors2.

Psychological Stress

As you may already know it, psychological stress is experienced by most people as mentally, physically, or emotionally, and is often presented as worry, overwhelming pressure, or mental overload. This type of stress is typically caused by daily responsibilities, such as work, family, money/financial situation, and extreme/over-exerting physical activity.

What is the difference between acute and chronic stress?

Stress is also defined by the duration of the situation causing stress, and the intensity of stress. These types of stressors can be associated as acute stress (short period of time and generally easy to manage when addressed. Generally lasting minutes to hours) or chronic stress (stress that continues for a long period of time and difficult to manage when unaddressed. Generally lasts days, weeks, months or years)4.

Research – Stress and Immunity

A 2012 study assessed stress in 276 healthy adults and the effects on their immune system, with controlled variables. The results found that stress (defined as a recent stressful life experience) leads to greater risk for developing a cold when exposed to illness6.

How does Fusion Health Immunity and Stress help?

Stress and feeling run down (such as burning out), often go hand in hand. Fusion Immunity & Stress has been specially formulated with herbs and nutrients to help you cope with both, helping provide stress relief and immune support.

Fusion Immunity & Stress combines ashwagandha to help the body adapt to stress, with astragalus to improve immunity, based on its traditional use in Chinese medicine. Plus, zinc and vitamins C and D to support healthy immune system function.

Ashwagandha relieves stress symptoms

Fusion Immunity & Stress features KSM-66®, a clinically trialled extract of ashwagandha (withania) to improve the body’s ability to adapt to stress and relieve symptoms of stress7,8. In Ayurvedic medicine, ashwagandha is traditionally used to help the body adapt to stress and as a rejuvenating tonic.

Astragalus, traditional Chinese immune tonic

Astragalus improves immunity and helps reduce the frequency of common colds, based on its use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It’s also taken in TCM to support the immune system when it’s fighting illness and to help the body adapt to stress.

Nutritional immune system support

Fusion Immunity & Stress also contains zinc and vitamins C and D, which support healthy immune system function. Vitamin C also supports vitality and is needed to support energy production.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use.

References

1. Darling Downs Health. (2022, November 11). Signs you might be experiencing a burnout and how to regain balance in your life. https://www.darlingdowns.health.qld.gov.au/about-us/our-stories/feature-articles/signs-you-might-be-experiencing-a-burnout-and-how-to-regain-balance-in-your-life
2. Bae, Y.-S., Shin, E.-C., Bae, Y.-S., & Van Eden, W. (2019, January 28). Editorial: Stress and immunity. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00245/full 
3. Thau L, Gandhi J, Sharma S. (2022, Aug 29). Physiology, Cortisol. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538239/
4. Australian Psychological Society. (2023). Types of stress. https://psychology.org.au/for-the-public/psychology-topics/stress/types-of-stress
5. Haykin, H., Rolls, A. (2021, September 14). The neuroimmune response during stress: A physiological perspective. Immunity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2021.08.023
6. Cohen, S., Janicki-Deverts, D., Doyle, W., Miller, G., Frank, E., Rabin, B., Turner, R. (2012). Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1118355109
7. Chandrasekhar, K., Kapoor, J., & Anishetty, S. (2012). A prospective, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of safety and efficacy of a high-concentration full-spectrum extract of ashwagandha root in reducing stress and anxiety in adults. Indian journal of psychological medicine, 34(3), 255–262. https://doi.org/10.4103/0253-7176.106022
8. Auddy, Biswajit & Hazra, Jayram & Mitra, Achintya & Abedon, Bruce & Ghosal, Shibnath. (2008). A Standardized Withania Somnifera Extract Significantly Reduces Stress-Related Parameters in Chronically Stressed Humans: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study. Journal of American Nutraceutical Association. 11. 50-56.